Friday, October 17, 2014

One of the most talked about stories on Madison Avenue this year has been whether Apple has lost its' way. Their messaging and even their products seems to be playing catch up rather than follow the leader. And now the ad battle seems to be heating up with the release of Apple's latest offering, the iPad Air2.
Earlier this year Samsung released this ad for the Galaxy Pro 10.1

Ouch.

And then Samsung released this rabbit punch to the throat with the "Galaxy 4 Note - then and now"
Samsung creative is coming out of the New York office of 72andSunny. This ad shop has been creating some really fresh work, including the much touted Google app campaign where they embedded questions for the app into actual site locations all over New York.
IPad's response? You can almost hear the kids in the schoolyard yelling "Oh yeah?? Well here's what you can do with your pencil, Samsung!"

Here's an insightful article from VentureBeat that encapsulates some of the issues Apple is having with refinding their swagger.

I'm sure Tim Cook tired long ago at the..."what would Steve have done" question. The products used to be so innovative they almost sold themselves. The task at hand for TBWA and the inner creatives at Apple is now more mine-filled than ever. But as one of the TBWA positioning statements claims, "If you want a stronger call to action...create a better ad!"
If they were actually allowed to say this it would likely be amended to "If you want a stronger call to action... stop getting out designed by your competition."

With over 30 years experience, Tim McLarty currently works out of Toronto Canada as a writer/voice performer, producer and media strategist producing advertising and entertainment content.